Barge leaves with tanker's oil

Transfer of crude from damaged tanker at Port of Albany now under way

Updated 7:00 pm, Monday, December 24, 2012

The Stena Primorsk rides much higher in the water after it off loaded its cargo of crude oil in the Port of Albany after it ran aground sour of the capital city of Albany, N.Y. Dec 24, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

ALBANY — The first of three barges left Monday morning from the Port of Albany, filled with crude oil that was removed from a tanker damaged during its own trip from the port Thursday.

It will likely take three barges to carry the 280,000 barrels of oil the tanker was carrying, said Rich Hendrick, the port's general manager.

The tanker, the Stena Primorsk, was on its maiden voyage from the Buckeye Partners terminal at the port last week, providing the final link in a supply chain that stretches from the Bakken field in North Dakota to the Irving Oil Co. refinery in St. John, New Brunswick.

The Port of Albany — with its petroleum storage tanks, and rail and water links — over the summer became a transfer point for shale oil shipments moving from the Bakken field to refineries along the East Coast.

Canadian Pacific tank trains have brought the crude to the port, where it has been loaded on barges. The Stena Primorsk, the first tanker to carry crude from the port, struck something south of Albany, damaging the outer hull of the double-hulled ship.

It's not clear how badly the ship was damaged, although no oil was spilled.

"I'm hearing all kinds of conflicting reports" about damage to the outer hull, Hendrick said, ranging from a 1-by-2-foot tear to a gash as long as 150 feet.